Investigator accessed Shane Todd's hard drive: computer forensics expert

Investigator accessed Shane Todd's hard drive: computer forensics expert

    By Kimberly Spykerman
    POSTED: 14 May 2013 11:00 PM
   
An investigating officer from the Singapore Police Force was the one who accessed a hard disk drive belonging to American researcher Shane Todd after he was found hanged in his apartment, the coroner's court heard on Tuesday.

SINGAPORE: An investigating officer from the Singapore Police Force was the one who accessed a hard disk drive belonging to American researcher Shane Todd after he was found hanged in his apartment.

Details of this were given by a computer forensics expert on Tuesday -- the second day of a coroner's inquiry into Dr Todd's death.

The 31-year-old was found hanged in his Singapore apartment in June last year in an apparent suicide.

The hard disk drive has been central to claims by Dr Todd's parents that their son did not take his own life.

The parents believe Dr Todd was murdered over his work for Singapore's Institute of Microelectronics.

A hard disk drive containing work files that were accessed three days after his body was found has been central to this claim.

The coroner's court heard that the files were accessed by the investigating officer in Singapore before he returned it to Dr Todd's parents.

The officer had done so to check for any suspicious information but had returned it when he found none.

Computer forensics expert Kristen Soong, who examined the disk drive, said it was last connected to the officer's computer.

She testified that when the officer opened one particular file, a temporary file was created.

This was deleted when he closed the original file.

Her findings were supported by a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which also examined the hard drive.

In court on Tuesday, lawyers for the Todd family also put forward several hypotheses that attempted to show that the 31-year-old did not take his own life.

Police officers had said they saw no signs of forced entry into the apartment, ransacking or foul play.

But the Todd family lawyers asked if it was possible Dr Todd died elsewhere and his body was moved back to his apartment, since no blood stains were found; whether the furniture in the apartment could have been moved back to its original position to give an impression that there was no struggle; and whether the suicide notes allegedly left by him could have been written by someone else. This was because the spelling of the word "Keyes" in reference to a place in Florida was spelt incorrectly in the note.

The raising of these possibilities led to a robust exchange between lawyers for the State and the Todd family. Three times, the State's lawyers asked if these possibilities were allegations or statements of fact.

The State's lawyers also asked if the evidence laid out in court was being challenged, but the Todd family's lawyers said they were not taking a position on the matter and were only enquiring about possibilities.

A handwriting expert and DNA analyst from the Health Sciences Authority also took the stand on Tuesday.

It was revealed that the handwriting on Post-It notes found in Dr Todd's bedroom matched his writings in his notebook.

One of the Post-It notes had a password written on it. When officers used the password to access Dr Todd's computer, they found the suicide notes.

It was also revealed that four unknown DNA imprints were found on the towel and strap which were wrapped around Dr Todd's neck.

- CNA/ir

- wong chee tat :)